


xxviii; Beast

by Theo_Thaur



Series: 31 Days of TUA Whump [28]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s02e02 The Frankel Footage, Gen, Luther Hargreeves-centric, One Shot, Protective Luther Hargreeves, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:34:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27311257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theo_Thaur/pseuds/Theo_Thaur
Summary: Whumptober 2020 submission. No 28. "SUCH WOW. MANY NORMAL. VERY OOPS": Accidents, Hunting Season, Mugged.-----In a series of chain events, Luther finds himself shot --left with the difficult decision of whether to trust Vanya, and how much to tell her about her past.
Relationships: Harlan Cooper & Vanya Hargreeves, Luther Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Sissy Cooper & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: 31 Days of TUA Whump [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951234
Kudos: 15
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	xxviii; Beast

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGERS: gore, guilt, self-image issues, gun usage.

_xxviii; Beast_

Okay, so, maybe getting mugged wasn't Luther's best idea. Especially not when the thing he was having taken from him, was his best hint when it came to finding Vanya again. He'd found a wallet nearby the car he'd seen her driving, and if not a clue, well returning it would've been the right thing to do anyways. But then there was that small problem again, he'd been mugged. Maybe not mugged exactly? More like… swindled. He'd been helping an old lady cross the street after leaving the Carousel Club that night, and once she'd turned the corner he realized the wallet was gone. He'd checked the crosswalk, the sidewalks, and retraced his steps so well he was honked at and nearly hit a couple times. No wallet. Now, Luther had gotten the gist of a little 'return to if lost' card in the wallet, some sort of Carter, Cooper, or Campbell living outside the city --actually he recalled the specific rural county of Texas. Luther made the rational choice, after finding out just that night from Five that there was yet another apocalypse, to go out looking for Mr. Cook or Mr. Collins. He ignored the fact that because he'd lost the wallet, this officially wasn't about doing a good deed and returning it. This was about Vanya.

A trusty phonebook by his side, he picked locations to look around at, within the rural area there were a fair amount of people that had registered addresses starting with a 'C'. Luther tried to remember the correct name, but try as he might his mind had glazed over the name, which wasn't his fault. By that point, Luther had _just_ seen Vanya. His mind had wandered to the destruction she'd caused when they'd last met, the look in her eyes as she threatened their existence. She'd made the only two homes he'd ever had crumble. He was sure he would've gotten his head around the wallet owner's name eventually, once he'd had more time to think, and gotten to the Plano Street Rooming House for Solitary Men. 

The sun was just barely beginning to set, he'd been to around a dozen houses and received mixed responses. Some people had been confused about receiving a stranger at their door, others suspicious, but he had gotten invited to a nice lunch with a big family. The mom looked tired as she tried to round up kids of all ages and settle them down at a long table, but she'd been sweet and sent him off with extra cornbread. Seeing children that didn't line up by the table to eat, that put their elbows on the table and talked through the meal, it was all weird. It made him think about the kind of upbringing he'd gotten. The life he watched briefly seemed better, even if the homesteading lifestyle was more modest than the academy in the city, and not as refined. Things would've been different if they'd grown up like kids. Maybe things would've been better with Vanya.

In any case, no luck finding Vanya so far. Luther _had_ gotten into a bit of a struggle navigating the back roads, because well he had gone to space, how many practical driving lessons had they received? Not many, not with Reginald constantly worried they'd ding up one of his nice cars, and Luther was inexperienced all through his adult life as well. Maps were dumb anyways. There was another house he needed to get to, someplace off to the east if he was oriented right, but there was all his corn in the way. Wanting to be as quick as possible from house to house, Luther decided that since he couldn't go under around it or over it, he'd just make his way through the cornfield. The car Jack Ruby had let him drive wasn't particularly great, it was definitely pushing a few years old, and for being a little outdated in the early nineteen-sixties, that meant there wasn't going to be any air conditioning. He'd been sweating, a lot, and had the windows rolled down to blow some air into the car and keep it from getting too bad. He'd peeled off his shirt at one point or another, throwing on the layers whenever he had to get up to knock on a door. Keeping his shirt and jacket on hand, he went straight in the direction the rows were planted in. Luther had to awkwardly push past stocks considering how broad his frame was. At least it was a little shadier under the tall plants, so that made it easier to keep moving through. Finally, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, moving past the last few dried leaves to see a house off in the distance. Luther crouched down, putting his jacket and shirt on the ground, making sure his revolver was still in the pocket of his jacket and had safety on. It was just in case. He knew the state he'd seen Vanya in, Luther didn't want to use it but he would if she was hostile, because he didn't know what she could be capable of. They hadn't been close as children and as adults hadn't existed on the same plant for the better part of years; he didn't know if Vanya would be feeling very receptive after she was taken to another decade without consent, having tried to ruin their family. 

Realizing his shirt was inside out, silly him, he turned it back right side out, all the while hunched out in front of the corn, his back to the home in the distance. A moment later, and a gunshot simultaneously rang out through the empty field, as he felt a sharp pain in his upper back. Luther doubled over, groaning, and another bullet was fired, inches away from the second, generating two points of pain so strong that he could hardly tell them apart. Not a stranger to being shot at, it was still something Luther generally tried to avoid. The pain didn't feel all that great, the bullet making contact with his flesh as it spun, the hollow inside of the hunting ground cracking open past the nose. As the bullet dug into the delicate skin, slightly off center from his spine, jagged and torn edges of the round cut in a circular motion, tearing at tissue before it came to a stop inside of him.

He turned around quickly, to look back at where he'd been shot from, a hand fumbling behind himself for the revolver buried in his clothing. Cocking the gun he sprang up, scanning the house. The front door opened slowly, he saw the face of a woman, her hands were up in the air. Two figures drew over from either side of the house, one near the barn and the other smaller, a kid. The kid raced up the front porch steps to the woman wearing a pink shirt, and the woman seemed to urge him to go into the bright yellow house, which the child did. Luther held the gun, pivoting between the remaining two as he began to take steps closer. Details began to get clearer, he saw laundry hanging out in the yard amongst planter boxes, and didn't know what to think about any of it. The other adult wore blue flannel, and --oh. That was Vanya. It was weird not seeing her in that crisp, all white suit. He lowered the revolver cautiously, putting safety on, but she looked as confused as he did. Putting her hands down slowly, the other moved off the porch, closer to Vanya's side. Luther didn't recognize the one in the pink top, but stopped a fair distance away. 

"You shot me," he deadpanned.

The one that wasn't Vanya nodded, appearing drawn out of some trance, "yes, yes I did. I'm sorry, sir." Vanya looked over at her, forehead creasing. "It's, well…" she sighed. Luther's hand twitched, still holding the gun. "I thought you were a bear!" she blurted out, looking beside herself. Luther was confused.

"A… a _bear_?" he repeated. 

"It's just, there's been a problem with our cattle, something's been going after it and…" she trailed off. His cheeks flushed. Luther had been genuinely mistaken for some kind of predatory animal. From behind, and at the distance, but still. Talk about rubbing salt in old wounds. "C'mon, least I can do is get you fixed up?" the lady offered hesitantly, eyes drifting across his muscled and hairy chest like it was a strange puzzle. He didn't want to stay just to be looked at, but had to remind himself he'd come all this way to see Vanya. Luther nodded, a bit nervous and a little self-conscious about the whole thing. He still saw her as being the likely cause of the next apocalypse, the one Five had told him about. But he wanted to see her, he'd worked very hard to make it there, though he still didn't really know why. Luther should know, this was about how _he_ felt, and the way he felt was not wanting to get involved a second time because Five had told them they'd be safe if they left the old world behind. Luther didn't want to make the same mistakes again, and that, that was just it. 

He wanted to learn something but he didn't know what that something was.

In the kitchen, there was a plate of cheeses and breads, clearly they'd been about to settle down for a small snack or appetizer. It was a comfortable-looking house, there were knick-knacks on shelves, with a few children's toys and books left out. Could it really be that nice of a place? Luther tried to ignore the barrel of the rifle that had shot him, which had been slipped out through an open window in the front of the house. The lady pulled a chair away from the table, and Luther sat down in it with his chest against the back of the chair. It was a petite thing that made him feel bigger than he already was, if he leaned too much of his weight against the back of the chair the wood groaned. She stepped away to gather some things, Luther drew his eyes up from the green linoleum to look at Vanya.

"I've seen you before," she said quietly. "Outside a nightclub, I was going to get somebody."

He nodded, "uh-huh. I've been... looking for you." Luther didn't really want to get kicked out with two bullets still in his back, and he didn't want her to feel too unsafe, or think he was stalking her. Wait. Luther furrowed his brow. "You don't know who I am?"

Vanya smiled, but she shrugged. "I don't, no. Should I?" she sounded nervous, but also a little excited. No way was Vanya tricking him, he'd been tricked by that little old lady and that had been one time too many. 

"You know who I am," he said sternly. "Don't play dumb with me, Vanya."

She frowned, picking at the edge of her flannel. "I was in an accident a week ago. I can't remember anything before that. Sorry…" Luther watched her for a few seconds, before the other woman came back in with a tray of various supplies to help him. The woman was well-equipped all things considered, but Luther guessed that came along with being a responsible parent. She stepped behind him with a dampened rag, cleaning up the blood that had ran down his back before pressing it at the two wounds. Luther grit his teeth and tried to not break the chair in his hands, with his fingers curled around the back of it. It stung deeply, he'd never been shot with that kind of a bullet before, since criminals didn't tend to use hunting rounds. In the past he'd never been ecstatic to have Grace pull out a bullet, and this was no different, especially since it had come at a time when he hadn't really been physically prepared for battle. Luther had brought a gun, but that didn't mean he'd thought about needing to use his strength, or tried to tap into the active use of his body rather than passive muscle. 

"Where do I know you from?" Vanya asked slowly, staring down at him. That was a tough question and luckily, he was trying not to look like he was in too much pain in front of Vanya, so he had an excuse to not immediately reply. 

"... It's not important, not really," was still the best he had. Vanya looked at him with wide eyes and he knew she was just confused, and she cared, and somehow that made it worse because he didn't know if he was ready to see her like a person instead of a bomb. He didn't know if he was ready to accept that guilt, that he hadn't spoken to her, hadn't acted like a real leader should.

"Well… if I knew you I'm sure it's important… right?" Vanya offered, taking a step closer.

"She's got a point. Not too many black bears in this area of Texas," the women behind him said. Upset, Luther turned to try and look back at her, but ended up causing pain with the twisting of his back, and so he kept looking at Vanya instead. "I'm getting your goat, you two should talk," the lady added, sounding almost a little sad. Luther couldn't see why.

Ready or not, he had to speak up. He had to apologise. It was the right thing to do, his guilt, that had been what had led him all this way, right? If he'd been entirely afraid he would've stayed as far away as possible, if he'd been indifferent he would've lived life in Dallas, but it was the guilt that had made him search through a quiet rural county to try and find her again. Luther had thought he'd been making a difficult sacrifice to keep everyone safe by putting her away, but he'd just done what Reginald had always pushed him to, dividing the academy, trying to justify cutting Vanya out. It had been a hard lesson to be forced into learning as a kid, that individual strength was more important than teamwork, that fighting to rank the highest in some bullshit competition and controlling everyone else was the only way to feel secure in a group, the only way to show value.

"Vanya, it's just…" a boy stepped out into the kitchen from the hallway, tugging Vanya's sleeve and looking a little frustrated. She looked down at him, smiling softly.

"I'm sorry Harlan. We never finished our game of hide and seek, I never counted all the way down to zero. Why don't you go pick out a record?" she suggested gently, showing a kindness that reminded Luther of when they were teenagers and she'd taken care of a bird with a broken wing one winter. Vanya still had compassion for the quiet and soft-spoken, all those years later. "We can finish the game tomorrow, I promise," she added, when the child didn't respond. He nodded, and turned away, going down the hall. Vanya looked up to Luther, giving him a sad, half-reluctant smile. "We'll finish this soon too, right? You should stay for dinner."

Luther nodded, "yeah," he muttered, but she'd already turned around to follow Harlan. Vanya was happy here. Maybe it wasn't right to take that away from her --or was he still just running from the truth? The rag peeled away from his skin, having been dabbing at it, and a new brand of pain was introduced as the tweezers dug into the wound, still somewhat shiny with blood, searching for the expanded bullet, the edges of which would certainly hurt and scrape on the way out. Luther sniffed, wiping at his eyes. He hadn't been good enough in the old timeline, maybe this was the family she'd always deserved, not something Luther could've hoped to provide.


End file.
